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The Matriarch of one deathclaw pack was captured by the psychic tribe known as the Beastlords. While the tribals were able to use their psychic powers to control other animals, the deathclaws were strong enough to resist them. However, they cooperated with the Beastlords in order to protect their Mother. After the Matriarch was freed by the Brotherhood of Steel, she led her pack to join the Brotherhood, and the Elders surprisingly agreed. She herself is recruitable as Mother.

A deathclaw subspecies living in the area of the former states of Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. It notably distinguished from other deathclaws by having mammal-like appearance and physique, including higher primate body-shape, more developed arms with long and sharp claws, horns of several herbivore mammal types, and a predatory maw. It skin is very durable and covered with patches of fur. Furthermore, some of them were noted to be capable of speech as early as in 2197.

The hairy deathclaws are more matriarchal than their New California, Capital Wasteland and Mojave Wasteland counterparts, with large packs being led by Matriarch. In prey-less wastelands, however, large pack splits in autonomous smaller families of infants led and protected by the pair of adults. While infant, these deathclaws are less hairy and seem to be absolutely unintelligent, behaving like an animal or simply following the adults.

In Fallout Tactics patched to 1.27, deathclaws are deadly. They are highly resistant to regular ammunition. The non-player characters in each bunker often say "I have some AP ammo for those deathclaws." but they will not trade it. Even an Anti-Vehicle mine does only medium damage.

In Quincy, a player is confronted with seven deathclaws and around five baby deathclaws. However, they can be seen in a random encounter before that mission.

Deathclaws were derived from mixed animal stock and then refined using genetic engineering to produce super fast killing machines. Because of their extreme power they get a large amount of Hit Points and a boost to Radiation Resistance. However they are vulnerable to fire and cannot use any projectile weapons or armor. They can however, equip Power Fists and other unarmed weapons, as well as carry and use grenades and mines. Their statistics make them excellent for Stealth skills, so they can easily sneak up on enemies to get to melee range.

The hairy deathclaws were inspired by early deathclaw concept art where the deathclaws were hairy mammals.

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I'm pretty sure the main reason that the deathclaw lost its hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software at the time. I can't remember if it was the amount of additional rendering time required, an animation issue getting all the hair to move properly, or something else, but it was something along those lines. The hairy deathclaw in FOT was inspired by the original concept, plus we thought it was nifty to show that there variations and different mutations of the same stock "beast". We probably should have had both versions, but that's a decision based on hindsight.

"Well, let's see... Deathclaws appear to be mutated Jackson's iguanas, the horned variety. There are a lot of similarities still present, but an even greater number of differences. The mutation factor is quite high. This species is highly intelligent, about the equivalent of an eight-year-old, with some individuals reaching human normal level. Their learning capacity is very high and they are capable of abstract thought and reasoning."